To Have A Friend
by Lordandempiressdoodle
Summary: This is a One-Shot sequel to my story "Six Feet Under" which is just about the aftermath of Ezra getting buried alive. Hopefully it should make you go "awe" but if not please feel free to enjoy some classic space-fam fluff anyways!


**Hi-ho! In case you didn't know, this is a sequel to my story "Six Feet Under", so you should go read that before you read this (Because I'm afraid you will find yourself very confused if you read this as a stand alone… sorry)**

 **But anyway, Its basically just some fluffy h/c space family stuff I threw together because I couldn't stop myself, and as a thank you to those of you that read my last story, so this is for you guys!**

 **Disclaimer: I own a Star Wars Rebels DVD set, does that count? No? Ah well...**

Ezra stood with his eyes closed, letting the hot water cascade down his face. Taking a deep breath, he felt the steam enter his lungs, and open his airway. Time seemed to pass by in an illusion, and he had no idea how long he had been standing there, trying to clear his mind of the storm clouds that brought back flashbacks of a few days ago. How long had it been...two, three days? No two. It had been three days since he'd been buried alive, and two since he had been rescued.

He had also spent another day in and out of nightmares while under the watchful eye of his crew. Apparently he had suffered some sort of heat stroke and hypoxia (because of the lack of oxygen) and was only now allowed to spend some time alone to sort through his thoughts, and clean himself up. Still, he didn't spend very much time trying to go through all he experienced, because any time he opened his mind to anything, even the good things, it always morphed into the black inside of the metal box, and he was once again buried in the hot sand of Tatooine. Hera had said that the emotional trauma was expected, and that it would go away on its own, after all, it had only been two days. But part of Ezra believed that it would haunt him forever.

The crew, of course, had been nothing but supportive. Hera nursing his physical injuries, while Kanan focused more on the emotional scars left behind by the slavers. Zeb was there to wake him up from his nightmares, and Sabine even made him a card. Even Chopper tried his best to function as a distraction for the boy.

They had no access to any quality grade medical supplies, so Ezra was forced to heal the slow way, the painful way. Not that he wasn't used to it, spending Eight years alone on the streets of Lothal hadn't exactly been a walk in the park, but still, Ezra couldn't help but wince a little when he pulled to much on the blaster wound across his collarbone, or made a move too quickly, which aggravated the concussion he'd received from one of his many blows to the head.

 _Hands holding his shoulders, feet dragging across the hot sand. Echoes of the screams of the mother resonating in his skull as he stared into her lifeless eyes._

'No! Stop it' Ezra shouted in his mind, his body jerking as he grabbed at his hair feeling something pull in his shoulder.

 _Voices speaking loudly about him as he drifted in and out of consciousness._

He struggled out of the stream of hot water, pulling on a clean set of clothes he had brought in with him, ignoring his still dripping body. Seeing color blossom across his white shirt.

 _Hot metal burning against his skin. A suffocating nearness to the walls that seemed to close in on him, unable to scream, run, or even move._

It was too much, the steam was too hot, the room too small. The door seemed impossible to open and water, mixing with blood covered the floor. Ezra slid down a wall, and pulled his legs close to his chest, as he tried to slow his heartbeat. But no! He was trapped! He would suffocate, and the darkness would pull him in! Panic laced through every nerve in his body, an his hands shook with fear. He was going to die...and Ezra was terrified.

Terror. Thats what Kanan felt. Pure terror.

It had come on all of a sudden, as if all his instincts had just kicked into high alert sending a vast wave of adrenaline through his limbs. He stopped whatever he had been saying, mid-sentance, and shot up from his seat in the cockpit.

They had all been in the cockpit, making quiet conversation, trying to give Ezra as much privacy as possible while he went to clean himself up. The topic of the conversation had remained light, such as what they looked forward to when they reached Naboo, the system they had deemed appropriate for a bit of a holiday away from the empire. This vacation had been put off for a while now, but after Ezra had been kidnapped and rescued, it seemed like everyone, especially the young padawan, could use a break.

"Kanan? Whats wrong?" Sabine questioned, but Hera, after sharing a glance, already knew.

"Come on." She spoke in a commanding tone, and led to the small room where Ezra was. Without a thought, Kanan used the force to open the door, dreading what he would see.

Unfortunately, his fears were confirmed, as steam rolled out of the opening from the still running water. Their was blood on the floor, which was alarming, but not nearly so alarming as the state of his padawan.

Ezra was curled up in the corner with his head in his hands, shaking like a leaf. Kanan and Hera also took immediate notice of the growing red stain on his shirt, which was getting wet from his hair, still dripping with water.

"Sabine, go get the medi kit." Hera whispered. Without a word, Sabine was off.

Kanan entered the room cautiously, ignoring the puddles soaking through his shoes. He crouched down beside his padawan, putting on his calmest voice. "Ezra? Ezra look at me." the child didn't move, "Ezra, you're bleeding. You have to get up so we can clean it up." Slowly, he reached out a hand lightly placing it on his arm. With the touch, Ezra jumped, and his breath quickened. "Ezra. Look at me."

Gradually, the boy lifted his head. He was deathly pale, with large dark circles under his eyes, and tears mingled with his long eyelashes. Kanan looked directly into Ezras face, and spoke in a tone that while serious, was filled with compassion.

"C'mon kid, lets fix you up."

With a deep breath Ezra nodded, and with this, Kanan lifted still the quivering boy into his arms and carried him out of the room. By the time they stepped into the hallway, blood began to drip down Ezras arm to his fingertips, then fell to the floor in a steady rhythm.

Sabine trailed behind the pair with the medi-kit, and followed them into Kanans cabin where he set Ezra on the bunk. Seeing the fresh tears beginning to roll down the kids face, she left the kit on the bed next to Kanan and left the room. Under normal circumstances, Ezra would rather be caught dead than let someone see him cry, and when this was over, she didn't want him to have to deal with what he would see as humiliation at the bearing of his emotions,and he had already been throgh enough, so instead she went to get something to clean the bloodstains now decorating the floor of the ship. The red blotches still shone with reflected light, and each ad every one made her heart ache even more. _Ezra didn't deserve this._

They sat together in the dim light of the ship. The master and the padawan. The atmosphere was heavy as Kanan wordlessly wrapped a fresh white bandage over the ugly mark on the shoulder of his young protege, trying to beat the pace of the blood soaking through.

After two tries and many layers of bandages, he finally succeeded in staunching the bleeding, but by now, the pain Ezra was feeling was finally beginning to show. He had his eyes clenched tightly, and he was also biting his lip. A gasp escaped him as Kanan helped him into yet another clean shirt.

"Now you better not bleed on that one, that one is mine." Kanan spoke in refrence to the baggy clothing draped over Ezras shoulders, in an attempt to invoke a little humor onto his padawan. The jedi wanted desperately for the kid to speak, or smile, or show any other kind of expression other than those displaying the pain and sorrow he was certain plagued Ezras young mind, but he simply sat there, misery painted all over his face. "Do you want to talk about it? About...anything?"

"Kanan?" the voice was so small and pitiful, it pulled on his insides.

"Yeah kid?"

Finally blue eyes began to clear slightly of their former haze. "Do you like Hera?"

Kanan was _not_ expecting this, he immediately felt his face get hot, "Well...umm...of course- I like Hera, we all do...um"

The tinyest of smiles crossed the kids face "no I mean do you _like_ like Hera."

"I- um" But before he could answer Heras voice sparked up in the room announcing that they had landed on Naboo. At the sound of the pilot, Kanan felt his face get even hotter and he sputtered nonsense, "well- she...um" soon he gave up and grimaced.

"Knew it..."With this, Ezras eyes slowly began to close, and Kanan supported him as he lay back.

Ezras sleep only lasted a short time though, for not too soon after Kanan had begun to doze in a chair he had pulled near his padawans bedside, the kid began to stur in his sleep. Immediately Kanan was alert, senses acute to the signs of distress. But despite the masters attempts to calm him down, Ezras suffering only intensified until he was thrashing and screaming . A large pulse in the force sent Kanan flying backwards into the wall.

Slightly dazed, yet still determined, Kanan climbed back to his feet and pushed back to the bunk. But this time, instead of trying to restrain the boy, he placed a hand on his shoulder, trying to bring him back to consciousness. Suddenly, Ezra shot up, eyes wild, panting heavily.

Without a word, Kanan wrapped his arms around him, allowing the kid to relax into his embrace. They sat like this for a long time, encircled in a small bubble of affection. Kanan thought of the many times he had done this before; when Ezra lost his parents, when he had collapsed from his brush with the dark side, they had hugged so many times out of necessity for comfort. But then he could also recall times when it had been for good reasons. Like when they returned after their final battle with the grand inquisitor, or when Ezra had given Kanan a gift for his birthday. Perhaps it hadn't all been so terrible.

It was then that Kanan realized that Ezra had fallen asleep again. Soon, however, he felt his own eyes begin to close, and then knew nothing.

The next morning, Hera woke early. The ghost was quiet as she made her way to the cockpit, everyone else was still asleep. It had been their first full night of sleep in several days that hadn't been consumed with worry, or been interrupted by screams, or cries of terror.

She stopped to check on Ezra, but when she opened the door all she saw was Zeb snoring on the bottom bunk. Immediately she knew where he must be. She continued one door down in the hall, and opened it. What she saw filled her heart with comfort.

Kanan was on his back, half leaning on the wall, and next to him was Ezra, curled under his masters arm, nestled against his chest…

...Sleeping Peacefully.

 **Awe! I was feeling fluff, can you tell. Anyway, I hope you enjoyed it!**

 **Any ideas as to what I should write next? I have a few ideas, but I need inspiration ;p**

 **So yeah, Hope you guys have a great day!**

 **-Doodle**


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